Friday News Round Up – May 27

Posted on May 27, 2016 by admin

Our news round up today starts with the story of plans for a new memorial garden for infertility and fertility loss in San Francisco, where we’ll be in a few weeks for our Men’s Health Week event at The Turek Clinic. Plan to join us on June 16th from 7-9 pm to view artwork from the project’s permanent collection and make some of your own!
-Elizabeth

Memory Garden to Provide a Place to Mourn Infertility and Fertility Loss
by Jessica Zimmer
The Potrero View

Plans for the new memorial garden. Image Credit – The Potrero View.

“People who have had these losses have suffered alone,” said Salkin. “They may not even have talked to their best friend about it. The Memory Garden is a way to take a conversation that’s not quite underground, but terribly muted and limited, to the community. With the Garden, we’re essentially putting our arms around the shoulders of those who have experienced a loss and saying, ‘We’re here for you.’”

CCRM Network to Open State-of-the-Art Facility in Manhattan
PR Newswire

“CCRM is excited to open its first clinic in the Northeastern United States. This move will help us continue to grow as a global leader and serve CCRM families even better than before,” said Dr. Schoolcraft.

Dan Majesky Letter: Husband Posts About Heartbreak of Infertility
by Isabelle Khoo
The Huffington Post Canada

Describing the loss of their baby, the 37-year-old said: “I’ve felt time stop before. Car accidents, falling off a fence, a mountain bike jump gone wrong. I have not felt the vertigo of infinity like when we were told our baby was dead.”

Leah and Dan Majesky

World report on fertility treatments reveals high use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection: Editor attacks the over-use as ‘ineffective and costly care’
Science Daily

“The majority of the patients who will get pregnant with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) will also do so with IVF.” Studies have shown that ICSI results in fewer live births than IVF when used for couples where male infertility is not the problem. “Intending to improve their patients’ pregnancy probability by preventing fertilization failure, well-meaning doctors actually decrease their chances. This has to stop. We have pledged to do no harm,” he writes.

News Round Up: All About Veterans

Posted on May 20, 2016 by admin

CSPAN announcing HR 2577 passed.

This week’s News Round Up is all about veterans because a historic vote just took place and passed! The Mil-Con Bill, now named HR 2577, passed yesterday in the full United States Senate by a vote of 89 to 8, with Senators Corker, Crapo, Flake, Lankford, Lee, Paul, Risch, and Sessions voting against it and Senators Boxer, Cruz, and Sanders not voting. Confirmed: it *included* the Amendment providing funding for IVF for Veterans. It will now move forward to a conference committee to reconcile the bill and then go back to both the House and Senate for a vote.

Kuddos to all of you who called Congress this past week encouraging your local Senators to support this bill. Citizen advocacy does work!

Today, we localize the importance of this bill by sharing a recent news story of Michelle Wager, a MI veteran who has been facing her own infertility journey.

Michelle Wager, a MI veteran facing infertility.

“A roadside bomb blew off one of Wager’s legs, badly damaged the other and broke her back. Doctors say she coded three times. Her recovery was long and painful. Military health benefits covered the cost to get Wager back on her feet, but there was another problem. Her menstrual cycles had completely stopped, doctors say her injuries threw her body into early menopause. She was just 31 years old and her chances of having a child were slim to none.”

You can read more of Michelle’s story here.

We invite you to learn more about the challenge veterans face when pursuing family-building options and to contact your federal representatives asking them to co-sponsor S 469, the Women Veterans and Family Health Services Act. Find your representatives here.

News Roundup – April 15

Posted on April 15, 2016 by admin

A few stories that caught our eye this week.

-Elizabeth

VETERANS: Murray Amendment to Cover Reproductive Services for Injured Veterans Passes Key Committee

“This amendment is about fulfilling our promise to the military families who we ask to sacrifice and serve our country on our behalf,” Senator Murray said. “I’m so proud to see Democrats and Republicans working together to move this forward, but I know this is just the first hurdle. I will be fighting to see this through to the end so this country can keep up its commitment to care for our veterans and their spouses who dream of having a family.”

More babies, fewer multiple births, are resulting from assisted reproduction

Los Angeles Times

Melissa Healy

“In 2014, between 22% and 31% of women undergoing infertility treatment were electing to have just a single embryo transferred, with women under 35 choosing that option at higher rates than women over 40. That rate of “elective single-embryo transfers,” however, remains much lower than physician groups have called for.”

Assisted reproduction is on the rise in the United States, resulting in the birth of 65,175 babies in 2014, says a new report. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

Infertility issues take financial, emotional toll

The Tennessean

Hollie Deese

“We’re trying to find out about exactly how much all of this is going to cost,” she says. “I’m still paying on treatments that I did in 2010 with my ex-husband. We had to take out a loan for our treatment we did in November, and we’ll be paying on it for two years. We don’t want to put ourselves in a horrible financial situation.

“There are so many times that you just want to give up and say, ‘I’m done.’ Then, you think of the big picture, that you really want to be a parent, and you’ll do whatever it takes.”

Jessica Ray at her home in Gallatin. The 31-year-old Gallatin photographer still hopes to become a mom one day despite her infertility issues.
(Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)

Friday News Round Up – April 1

Posted on April 1, 2016 by admin

Here are some stories that caught our eye this week.

Elizabeth

Study: Plastic May Interfere with IVF Success

by Pacific Fertility Center Team

Published by Pacific Fertility Center

“BPA is a chemical used to make plastic hard and shatterproof—and it can leach from containers into food and drinks. Acting as an endocrine disrupter, it mimics the hormone estrogen—and can derail reproduction and other systems dependent upon hormones to work well.”

Shuls to help spread ‘hope’ to the childless. Yesh Tikva leader ‘turns light switch on’ for those coping with infertility

by Debra Rubin

Published by New Jersey Jewish News

The organization is running a variety of infertility awareness campaigns including the “Mikvah Infertility Awareness Campaign (which) places posters in ritual baths; for many observant women, performing the monthly immersion is a repeated painful reminder of their failure to become pregnant.”

Reining in sperm could lead to unisex contraceptive

By Aaron Heinrich

Published by Gizmag

“The researchers found that the key is a type of protein receptor that sits on a sperm’s tail and responds to the female sex hormone progesterone.”

“If the receptor protein doesn’t recognize progesterone, you would be infertile,” said Melissa Miller, a postdoctoral fellow at both UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco and the first author of a paper reporting the discovery. “This gives us an understanding of another pathway that is involved in human sperm activity.”

‘Baby deadline test’ aims to help women predict infertility problems

by Lauren Dunn

Published by NBC News

“For years, it’s been a staple in fertility clinics; it’s officially called the Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) test. Some doctors are now offering it as an option to healthy women to assess what they call their ovarian reserve. It’s now being called the ‘baby deadline test.'”

Friday News Roundup – March 25

Posted on March 25, 2016 by admin

A few of this weeks stories that we would like to share.

On Infertility, Closure, and Letting Go: The Lessons of Perimenopause

The Huffington Post

An inspiring story of a woman who is moving on after realizing her dream of having kids is not going to be a reality.

Childhood Cancer Poses Greater Infertility Risk for Male Survivors

Tech Times

Recent studies have discovered that between male and females who had undergone the same cancer treatments, the males have less of a chance of being fertile.

Reproductive Freedom Isn’t Just Birth Control and Abortion

Radkitten

The ability to access fertility treatments is another way for women to take control over their reproductive system.

9 Signs You Might Be Infertile

Bustle

Even if you are not planning on having children anytime soon, this article can help to detect some of the earlier signs of infertility.

Friday News Round Up – March 11

Posted on March 11, 2016 by admin

Just a few stories that caught our eye this week.

First Uterus Transplant in U.S. has Failed.

The New York Times

We were saddened to hear this news but glad that the clinical trial will continue.

Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham hospitalized, will undergo surgery.

CNN

We appreciate the awareness that Lena is creating by being open about her reproductive health and hope she is recovering well.

Scientists find cause of recurrent miscarriages.

BBC World Service

Advances in technology have decreased the cost of research, allowing scientists to discover that stem cells play a roll in recurrent miscarriages. Listen to this audio to hear about two studies that will be done to try to prevent miscarriage.

Friday News Round Up

Posted on March 4, 2016 by admin

Here are some stories that caught our eye this week and why.

-Maria

The Identity Theft of Infertility

by Justine Brooks Froelker

Published in HuffPost Parents

“Infertility and loss steals so much from us but most of us only realize how much it actually steals as life goes on. In the fight to become parents, many of us will become shells of who we once were, knowing we can never go back to who that was. It is the identity theft of infertility.”

This article reminds readers that even when one resolves their infertility by becoming parents, the path to parenthood very much remains inside us. Infertility is not something that simply gets forgotten or pushed into a closet. It continues to define us – even when we parent. This article does a good job reminding us of this.

My Fertility Problems Made me Feel Like a Failure

by Sara Fletcher

Published in The Guardian

“ I have many friends who have struggled with fertility issues, but who are reluctant to talk about it to anyone. They feel ashamed. They think it’s their fault. In some cases, even their own parents don’t know what they’ve been through.”

This story caught our eye because of its honesty. When we travel around interviewing women about their experiences with infertility, the concept of failure often arises. Failure to conceive, failure to “be a woman”, failure to even find happiness. This article takes on the idea of failure associated with infertility head-on and we appreciate its ability to call for more compassion to help reduce stigmas of shame and anxiety that comes with an infertility diagnosis.

Veterans Seek Help for Infertility Inflicted by Wounds of War

by Denise Grady

Published in the Houston Chronicle

“Even though the VA does not provide in vitro fertilization, Wager said she hoped it would recognize her infertility as a service-related injury and provide compensation, which she could use to pay for the treatment.”

This article highlights the struggle for veterans to receive funding from the VA for in vitro fertilization and highlights infertility advocacy work by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash). Much of Sen. Murray’s work has resulted from the lobbying efforts made by infertile wo/men who have attended previous Advocacy Days. This article serves as a true reminder of the impact our infertile voices can have to create better healthcare coverage for all fertility related treatments.

ART of IF

The official blog of the traveling art exhibit and oral history project, ART of Infertility.

Category Archives: News Round Up